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Paul Jordan goes to the mattresses over Wayne Tefs "Bandit" for Manitoba Reads

Posted by SCENE staff | Saturday September 17, 2011

Paul Jordan (CBC)

"I've always found that truth is way stranger than fiction -- you can't make this stuff up. So that's why I was really drawn to this book... You could write this book and it would stand alone as fiction, but underlying the whole case is that it is real. It really happened."

Paul Jordan is one of our esteemed panelists in the first edition of Manitoba Reads. His pick is a fictionalized account about Manitoba's famous outlaw Ken Leishman.

"For many Winnipeggers, Paul Jordan is the face of The Forks, sharing his enthusiasm for it as an important cultural centerpiece for the city, and a rich tourist destination. As the Chief Operating Officer, he has been closely involved in its transformation from an abandoned rail yard to one of the busiest locations in the city, with more than 4 million visits a year. The Forks hosts over 120 events every year, winter and summer, and was recently recognized by the Canadian Institute of Planners as "Canada's Greatest Place."

Wayne Tefs: Bandit (Turnstone, 2011) In 1966, Ken Leishman stepped onto the Winnipeg Airport tarmac and into the pages of Canadian history as the mastermind behind the country's largest gold theft. Known as the "flying bandit" or the "gentleman bandit," Leishman had already gained Dillingeresque notoriety as a bank robber when he stole the public's imagination with his last great exploit: brazenly--and politely--holding up a bank in Toronto. Regarded as a Robin Hood-like figure at the height of his exploits, Leishman had humble beginnings in Holland, Manitoba. Master storyteller Wayne Tefs imagines what happened behind the "Flying Bandit" headlines, intermingling the full-on action of the gold heist with the story of a smart but troubled kid growing up in a stifling small prairie town.